Medical technology company Prothea Technologies has enrolled the first patient in its Precision Lung clinical trial – a key milestone in the company’s mission to revolutionise lung cancer diagnosis and treatment. Credit: Adobe Stock Launched in April 2024 and co-founded by IRR’s Professor Kev Dhaliwal, Prothea is developing technologies designed to “see and treat” lung cancer in the same hospital visit – a step-change from the weeks-long pathway patients currently face.Up to 40 patients will be recruited at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh, where the study will test Prothea’s novel bronchoscopy system in patients with suspicious lung lesions identified on CT scans, and who require a biopsy.Lung cancer is the UK’s third most common cancer, with more than 48,000 new diagnoses each year, and survival rates remain low. Screening programmes have increased detection of suspicious lesions, but hospitals still struggle with low biopsy yields and high false negative results. Prothea’s technology seeks to address these issues by combining innovative microscopic optical fibres, fluorescence imaging and biopsy instruments. The system aims to capture detailed, real-time images of tissue at a molecular level and has been designed to differentiate normal from abnormal tissue in the body. This ensures the biopsy sample is sufficient - whether for diagnostic purposes or for obtaining the molecular data essential for guiding therapies. Despite the introduction of many new technologies in recent years there are still patients around the world whose biopsies don’t provide sufficient tissue for the pathology they require. This novel technology clearly offers something different and I hope that this study will prove to be a satisfactory basis for further clinical investigations. Dr Adam Marshall Principal Investigator in the Precision Lung clinical investigation and Consultant Physician at NHS Lothian We are also developing a laser ablation catheter for the treatment of lesions immediately following visualisation and biopsy. We hope that the integration of these two systems (real-time imaging and ablation) will streamline biopsy and treatment into a single hospital visit, reducing time-to-treat from weeks to minutes, thereby relieving hospital pressures and improving patient outcomes. Professor Kev Dhaliwal Co-founder and Chief Science and Medical Officer of Prothea and Group Leader at IRR The Precision Lung trial will measure the safety and success of Prothea’s bronchoscopy system, including its impact on biopsy yield. Anonymised imaging data will be analysed with automated analysis algorithms developed during the study and incorporated in future software upgrades, to improve biopsy accuracy.Prothea technologiesEdinburgh Innovations Tags CIR Publication date 16 Sep, 2025
